Most of Monday’s late-February market resembled the rest of themonth: a little up here, a little down there, and a lot of flatnumbers in between. Once again the exception was in Northeastcitygates, which went as high as the $2.50s in some instances.

Buyers for the Northeast market had shown Friday they wereexpecting colder weather by sending Texas Eastern M-3 and TranscoZone 6 deliveries about 30 cents higher into the $2.30s and $2.40swhile the overall market was stagnant. But the scramble forsupplies heated up considerably in Monday’s freezing conditions.One trader said a winning strategy for him was to buy M-3 around$2.30 and sell Zone 6-NYC in the low $2.50s. The cold, which hecalled “more normal for the region than most of this winter hasbeen,” will last through today and then a slow warming trend shouldbegin Wednesday, he said.

Despite the big increases in Zone 6, Transco was actuallyfalling by a penny or two at its Zone 2 and Zone 3 pooling pointsin the Gulf Coast. And though the Midwest was just as cold as theNortheast, Chicago and Michigan citygates failed to register anychange from the low to mid $1.80s.

A shutdown of part of NOVA’s Edson Mainline for leak repairs(see Transportation Notes) failed to budge intra-Alberta pricing ofC$2.23-24, a marketer said. Storage gas should be able to handleany supply shortfall easily, he added.

The March bidweek was slow in getting started, a fact thatfailed to astound anybody. A Midcontinent trader said he wasunaware of any March business done Monday that wasn’tindex-related. It looks like the Midcontinent is setting up totrade in the mid $1.60s, he said, pegging basis at minus 5-6 forANR Southwest and minus 3-4 for Northern Natural-demarc. Anothertrader in the region tended to agree, saying he was hearingNGPL-Midcontinent at minus 6-7, which he said would equate to about$1.64-65 in fixed pricing.

A Western trader said Malin demand appears to be slack forMarch; “it’s not getting bid very aggressively at all.” He washearing $1.56-type numbers for Sumas and the $1.53 area for theRockies in general. Another source reported a $1.61 deal at Opaland mid C$2.20s numbers for intra-Alberta.

A Gulf Coast marketer said March basis was tightening and indexpremiums were getting bigger because of the “perceived value inbuying gas in the $1.60s.” Whereas it paid off to go into Februaryshort, he said, March will be the month to be long.”

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